Doctor's "Travesty."

 

Few physicians trained in military medical ethics, study indicates.

 

"Too few American medical students receive adequate instruction about military medical ethics and a physician's ethical duties under the Geneva Conventions," according to findings published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Health Services.

 

Harvard Medical School researchers "surveyed students at 8 medical schools across the United States, and found that 94 percent had received less than one hour of instruction about military medical ethics."

 

Notably, just "37 percent of medical students could correctly identify that the Geneva Conventions apply irrespective of whether war had formally been declared."

 

Almost 34 percent "didn't know that the Geneva Conventions state that physicians should 'treat the sickest first, regardless of nationality,

 

'" while "37 percent didn't know that the Geneva Conventions prohibit ever threatening or demeaning prisoners, or depriving them of food or water for any length of time." Lead author Dr. J. Wesley Boyd called this knowledge gap "a travesty."